Position Paper: Accessibility of Mainstream Graphical Information with
SVG

John Gardner

ViewPlus Technologies, Inc.

John.Gardner@ViewPlus.com

http://www.ViewPlus.com

Virtually any type of graphical information can be made to be fully
accessible to people with print disabilities by presenting those graphics in
well-authored Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) form. Good SVG graphical
information should have objects arranged in a semantically sensible object
tree and have the object titles included within the SVG file. ViewPlus is
showing prototypes of its new SVG access technology (scheduled for release in
2004) that gives excellent access by people with print disabilities to such
SVG graphical information.

The ViewPlus SVG viewer permits the user to move the mouse over objects
and hear the titles spoken. The title text can also be viewed on screen. A
touch screen or other non-standard method for moving the mouse can be used by
those who find the regular mouse difficult to use. A blind user can use a
separate touch pad on which a tactile copy is placed, permitting the user to
use her finger as a mouse to press on objects and hear their titles. The
tactile copy can be created separately and distributed for use with certain
SVG files or printed on-the-fly on a Tiger embosser to be used immediately.
Tiger embossers create embossed graphics at very high dot resolution and
emboss with variable dot height. Typically dot height is proportional to the
intensity with high dots for black regions and no dots for white regions, but
user options are available that permit one to alter the brightness and
contrast for maximum tactual differentiation.